Manufacturers of gaming machines continually strive to develop new games and gaming machines for playing the games thereon that provide as much enjoyment and excitement to existing players as possible to keep existing players from becoming bored. Additionally, the manufacturers of gaming machines also strive to develop new games and gaming machines that will appeal to and attract new players. There currently exist several types of mechanical and video slot machines, as well as simple video gaming machines embodying commonly played games, such as blackjack, poker, etc. However, these types of games and gaming machines do not particularly appeal to a younger audience of potential new players who grew up with extensive exposure to arcade style video games.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,769,716 to Saffari et al. discloses a game and an associated gaming machine. The gaming machine includes a display for displaying a grid section having a plurality of cells arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns. The gaming machine generates a single icon, which is displayed above the grid section. A player selects one of the columns into which the icon is transferred. The icon is transferred, i.e., falls, into the lowermost unoccupied cell in the selected column. The gaming machine indicates a win when an alignment of icons positioned in the grid section is equal to a predefined winning alignment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,144,322 to Gomez et al., discloses a game and an associated gaming machine. The gaming machine includes a display for displaying a grid section having a plurality of cells arranged in a plurality of rows and a plurality of columns. The gaming machine generates a random selection of icons to fill each cell of the grid section, i.e., the gaming machine randomly displays one icon in each of the cells of the grid section. The gaming machine indicates a win when an alignment of icons positioned in the grid section is equal to a predefined winning alignment. Icons equaling the predefined winning alignment are removed from the grid section. The icons displayed in the columns above the icons removed are shifted downward within their respective columns to fill any unoccupied cells upon removing the icons equaling the predefined winning alignment.
The present invention is directed at one or more of the problems set forth above.